It’s your friendly annual reminder to go out and visit your friendly neighborhood comic shop and pick up some free comics.

Free Comic Book Day is an annual event that takes place the first Saturday in May (May 7, 2011) to help generate – or regenerate – interest in comic books.

A lot of the big comic companies release titles for the day and, depending on your shop, you can often find a few decent indies as well. Some even dump out those quarter boxes simply to get them out of the store. (But please, please, please do not think that every comic in the store is free).

A lot of Spider-Man fans were impressed with Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and so was Activision.

The publisher has announced that Beenox, which worked on Shattered Dimensions, will develop the webslinger’s upcoming titles. To reinvigorate a franchise that Activision CEO Bobby Kotick once admitted his company had screwed up, Beenox called on four different Spideys. The game’s story whisked you through four separate, dare I say “Shattered,” dimensions for wall crawlers with unique play styles.

Siliconera is reporting that Marvel Comics has filed a Secret Wars trademark that would apply to everything from video games to action figures. This is leading to speculation that Marvel might mine the landmark storyline for a new game.

This year, Hallmark’s main video game themed ornament is Prince Dastan from Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Measuring 4 in. tall and retailing for $14.95 (ornament # QXD2152), it features the likeness of a leaping Jake Gyllenhaal as “The Prince.” The film is also being released on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Download September 14, 2010.

The other ornament, which I have yet to see in a store, is the Tron Lightcycle ornament (#QXD1153), also based on a upcoming Disney film (Tron: Legacy, December 17, 2010). This one is priced $16.95, is 4.5 in. wide and lights up (so it requires batteries, which are often included in Hallmark’s fancier ornaments). This definitely looks to be the more impressive of this year’s two game-related ornaments.

It was not that long ago that Activision CEO Bobby Kotick gave a brutally honest assessment of his company’s recent Spider-Man games.

With such a lucrative license you know Activision is going to keep trying and its latest attempt does sound promising.

Spider-Man:Shattered Dimensions will take the webslinger into four different universes with unique powers and super villains in each. So far Activision has revealed the “Amazing” and “Noir” universes, along with their respective villains.

Yes, you read that correctly. It is no lie.

Titled Spider-man: Turn off the Dark, the musical will include an origin story that, according to the web site, is “both recognizable and unexpected, yielding new character as well as familiar faces until a final surprising confrontation casts a startling new light on this hero’s journey.”

The musical will feature music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge (of U2 fame) and a story by Julie Taymor (The Lion King on Broadway), who is also directing it, and Glen Berger.